Page 110 of Kept in the Dark

“Sometimescalledbillions,” James observes with a laugh.

I cut him a sharp look. If he makes some kind of joke about how she defecated money, he will lose some of his teeth.

“It’s unlikely each micro-transaction is the same size, but I’d lowball the value of this drive in the hundreds of millions, all said,” Wesley continues.

She sucks in a noise of shock, and I watch her reaction curiously. The going rate for a hit these days is close to eight million, depending on the target. More, when the target is difficult—dangerous or high profile. It does not seem like so much to me anymore, but I suppose it would be to most of the people in this country, who will never see one million, let alone 100.

“You think it was the nicest wedding present ever?” James asks me.

I shake my head. “No, it was thousands of payments made for years of dirty business dealings. I think it is Volkevich’s safest bank account—the one with no central governing entity.”

“Bitcoin has become the preferred method of payment of the underworld—better even than cash, in some situations, because it’s safer and as anonymous as you want it to be,” Wesley adds.

“Da,and weddings are excellent places to strike up business deals—everyone is in a good mood and no one brings their gun—so I imagine that is why they had it.”

“A smart, careful man would only have one copy,” Wesley nods. “And we know Kyle wasn’t working with Viktor, so he must have stolen it from him that night.”

James laughs, rubbing his hands together. “I love a heist! Okay, so Douchebag Kyle knows his uncle is going to do some business, so he gets in there and steals it. But if anyone finds it on him, he’s a dead man, so he plants it in Nicole before he leaves the scene of the crime, planning to circle back to her for it later. Maybe he even starts the gunfight on his way out to cover his tracks.”

I have to admit, that seems very likely. Particularly as it aligns with Nicole’s description of Kyle from that night—on edge, covered in blood, manic.

“But wasn’t that risky?” she asks. “I mean, I got away, and he lost the money.”

“Obviously, he didn’t consider that. But even if you’d found it, you never would have known what you had. The wallets weren’t exactly easily accessible, hidden behind several layers of passwords and a two-step authentication that required Viktor’s personal cellphone,” Wesley explains. “Kyle likely didn’t even realize that was the case, since he didn’t steal the phone.”

Understanding lights her expression, and she exchanges a look with me. I wonder if she is aligning this story with the bandage on my hand and my strange state of mind last night. “Okay, sure. But even if it was inaccessible with passcodes and all that, why let it out of your sight? Why me?”

“They were checking the men,” I remember. “They were patting us down for weapons, checking our pockets. You were in the wedding party, very distantly related to the bride, above suspicion. And you were the only one without a date.”

She lifts a brow at me, and I respond with a smirk. She arrived without a man, but she did not leave alone.

She shakes her head. “Still. If I had my hands on that much money, I would never let it out of my sight.”

“She has a point,” I say.

“A damn fine point,” Wesley adds.

“That hundreds of millions of dollars isn’t just something you give to a stranger andhopeyou catch up to them later? Of course I have a point… did that not occur to you guys?” She stops herself, and her eyes flick around, as if she is seeing the grandeur of the house again for the first time. “How much money do youhave?”

“Hundreds of millions more than we did yesterday,” James chuckles. “Well, you do.”

“Me?” she squeaks. “People want to kill me for that, and I don’t even really get how it works. I don’t want it!”

Her reaction is not a surprise; still, it is always nice to know that your woman values the right things—her life over money, for instance.

Her round, frightened eyes meet mine. “He’s not being serious, is he? We’re not keeping that money. That would be insane.”

I can feel my teammates’ eyes weighing heavily on me. “James and Wesley and I will discuss the best path forward. Our first priority is always to ensure the safety of everyone involved. When we form a plan, usually the right option or opportunity presents itself.”

“Even having it is making me nervous,” she says softly. “It’s like I’m doing something actively illegal, just knowing about it. I know Viktor is dead, but… Hundreds of millions of dollars went missing from a crime family. I can’t imagine they’re going to just let it go.”

“Probably not.”

I can see her mind spinning, and I take a half-step towards her, made uncomfortable by the look of such doubt and concern on her face.

“So how do we get out of this? Can we give the money back?”

Wesley takes this one, his voice gentle. “We could, though I doubt it’s the right call. Volkevich has been in business in this area for a few decades; in that time, they’ve bought and sold everything from automatic weapons to drugs to people.”